THE AUSTRALIAN PEACE HONOUR ROLL

Family Name:

McLean

Given Names:

Jean

Gender:

Female

Birth-Date:

3 October 1934

Death-Date:

NA

Marital Status:

Married

Age Range:

30s-50s

Location:

VIC, Currum

Occupation:

Later, 1985-1999 Member of Parliament, Victorian Legislative Council

Primary Motivation:

Anti-Vietnam War, Anti-Militarism, especially conscription

Reason for Court Appearance:

[1] Breach of Melbourne City Council by-law 418

[2] Breach of the Summary Offences Act – willful trespass

[3] Incitement to not register under the National service Act 1964 (NSA)

[4] Incitement to not register under the NSA

Court Name and Location:

[2] Unknown, probably Magistrates Court, Melbourne

[2] Magistrates Court, Melbourne

[3] Unknown, probably Magistrates Court, Melbourne

[4] Unknown, probably Magistrates Court, Melbourne

Court/ Tribunal Hearing Date:

[1] 17 July 1968

[2] 8 April 1971

[3] 28 January 1972

[4] July 1972

Court Outcome:

[1] Dismissed on a technicality

[2] Convicted and Sentenced to 14 days jail, Fairlea Women’s Prison

[3] Unknown, if  any charge was proceeded with

[4] Convicted and sentenced to 6 days jail. Fairlea Women’s

Military Event:

National Service and Vietnam War 1964-1972

Further Information:

Jean McLean was born on 3 October 1934 in London. She was home-schooled. The family moved to Australia and lived in Currum a suburb of Melbourne. At the time of her activism during the Vietnam War, she was married with two children. Jean joined the Labor Party in 1965. In 1985 she was elected to the Victorian Legislative Council. She retired in 1999

In a recent interview with Alexandra Peirce, she with other activists of the Vietnam War period, discussed what motivated their activism. Jean, as a apolitically astute woman and well-read, noted that during WWII the Vietnamese were allies against Japan. The Vichy French, the colonisers of Vietnam supported Japan. She stated that the leader of Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, was a hero. She was critical of America who was actively working against Vietnamese independence. Such had been promised by the Americans. The Americans also allowed the French colonisers to return. When Prime Minister Menzies introduced conscription in December 1964, she was deeply troubled. She saw he introduced selective conscription of twenty-year old young men to fight in Vietnam.  She rejected Menzies’ claim that this was justified under ANZUS. She said I knew he introduced conscription for the war. I opposed it. From that time on she resolved to work for the repeal of the NSA and the end of Australia’s participation in the war. A principal means of doing this was the Save Our Sons (SOS) movement. Jean was the founder of the Melbourne Branch.

The Melbourne branch of SOS was active in supporting the rights of conscientious objectors and draft resisters (conscientious non-compliers) during the Vietnam War. It worked for the repeal of National service Act (NSA), the instrument of selective conscription. It also advocated for a change to the NSA to allow for conscientious objection to a particular war. In this case the Vietnam War. Its campaigns were non-violent and contributed to a larger movement dedicated to the same objectives. It had an advantage in that members were “ordinary” wives and mothers. Many wore hats and gloves and took their handbags to their protest activities. Its activism included regular vigils in Melbourne City Square and the State Library. Members would stand in silent protest holding anti-war and conscription placards. Members also wore sashes to identify themselves. They also handed out draft registration forms and encouraged people to fill them out with fictious names. The aim was to overload the national service registration system. They also engaged in civil disobedience outside the Swan Street army barracks where intakes of young men reported to. The SOS ceased operating soon after the newly elected Labor government of December 1972 ended conscription and released conscientious objectors and draft resisters who had been imprisoned.

Jean explained in an interview with Alexandra Pierce that SOS started in a small personal manner. Jean spoke to other class members of her pottery class. Some had teenage sons and realized they could be impacted by conscription. Jena suggested having a house meeting to discuss what could be done. She invited the Revd. Bruce Silverwood to speak on that topic. He suggested hiring a hall for a meeting and advertising in the media inviting other people. To Jean’s shock it attracted 100 people. The name Save Our Sons was adopted after a similar group in Sydney suggested it. At first the group was confined to working for the repeal of the NSA. Later the Vietnam War and conscription for it became inseparable. So the end of Australia’s participation in the war was a second objective.

She mentioned that most of the woman involved were at least middle age: Ceci [Ceci Cairns] was probably the youngest in Melbourne having been born in 1944. For comparison…[Jean McLean] …a decade older, in her thirties. The woman generally came from middle-class backgrounds. Once their activism started to impact the authorities found it difficult to label them in an attempt to undermine their effectiveness. Jean reflected on the success of SOS and said…And it was very successful, in part, because they could’nt really label us, you know. We started off being naïve – no, first we were communists. Then they decided we were’nt. Then we were naïve – and finally, they decided that we were respectable middle class women who objected to war…we never fought them. Always non violent.

Jean was arrested and fined and imprisoned multiple times for her activism. On 17 July 1968 Jean together with another member of the SOS, Jo Maclaine-Cross, were charged under a Melbourne City Council (MCC) by-law 418.The by-law had not been invoked for a very long time. Jean and Jo were protesting outside the army barracks and distributing leaflets. It was a time of intake of conscripted army recruits. Jean’s legal counsel argued that the MCC had breached article 19 of the United Nations Convention on Human Rights. The case was eventually dismissed on a technicality.

Jean, together with Joan Coxsedge, Irene Miller, Chris Cathie and Jo Maclaine-Cross, all SOS members, were charged with willful trespass on government property under the Summary Offences Act. The property was an office of the Department of Labour and National Service. The court hearing was Thursday 8 April 1971, Maundy Thursday the day before Good Friday. They were handing out anti-conscription leaflets to young men reporting for induction into the army. Joan and the others were sentenced to fourteen days imprisonment in Fairlea Woman’s Prison Melbourne, without the option of a fine. They served 11 days before being released. They became known as the ‘Fairlea Five’. The jailings attracted opprobrium, verbal confrontation, and abuse towards them and the authorities. She and other SOS members were charged with being communists or communist sympathisers, anti-Australian, bad mothers and neglectful wives. It was suggested that Magistrate Foley had been leant on by the authorities to make an example of the five women. The Fairlea Five were released at 9.15am on 18 April 1971. They were taken to a welcoming rally at the Melbourne City Square. Jean spoke to the assembled multitude, Those splendid people who lasted out the vigil had as tough a time as we did. I congratulate them.

On Friday 28 January 1972 several activists were handing out “Don’t Register for National Service” leaflets near the Melbourne Town Hall. Incitement to not register for national service was a crime under the Crimes Act. The Commonwealth Police were observed to selectively arrest some of those handing the pamphlets. It was suggested those well-known to the police. It was challenged by the protesters as discrimination and victimization.. Jean was arrested when she demonstrated her solidarity with the young people so selectively arrested. This was confirmed on Thursday 17 February 1972 court case of Harry van Moorst, a “notorious offender” to the police. It is unknown if Jean was summonsed to court. On the 24 July it was reported that. Commonwealth Police swooped on a ‘draft counselling centre’ 45 minutes after it opened on the General Post Office steps…They arrested campaign vice president Mrs Jean McLean and Victorian ALP State Council delegate Mrs Joan Coxsedge. The report added that three plan-clothes police seized files of pamphlets, the Draft Resisters journal Downdraft, and the centre’s stall folding table and chairs. The leaflets urged young men not to register for national service. Jean was convicted and sentenced to 6 days jail in Fairlea Women’s Prison as she refused to pay a fine for incitement which breached the Crimes Act.

Jean helped organised safe houses for draft resisters who went “underground” to evade the authorities. She arranged the houses, transport   and food. In a recent interview with Alexandra Pierce she was asked about her role, Yeah I ran the underground. Yeah I  did. Tony Dalton stayed at Ian Turners house. That was his  first  -then he stayed at Connie Benn’s house. Then – because they used to move them every  fortnight…Yeah the  whole thing. Jean recalled,Another guy, called Ian Turner, who we sent to – he was studying architecture at Melbourne Uni. And he was called up, and he didn’t want to go. So we sent him up to Eden, to a friend who was a fisherperson. And he stayed there. And he loved it so much, he never wanted to go back. And what he ended up doing was being a pearl seeder. She explained that usually people she approached to become a safe house were willing to  agree. During 1969 at the invitation of Madame Cam, she visited North Vietnam. In an interview conducted by Victorian Labor, Jean described the safe houses she established in Victoria and in other states and New Zealand. She said…Draft Resisters were moved regularly usually on a two or three weeks roster so as not to create a burden for the hosts. There were some who stayed in our family home but usually not for very long, no longer than a few days…Some of the Draft Resisters were whisked away interstate on boats. We asked for fake passports to get them overseas but it seemed that was not as    we thought…. Our phones were tapped and I used to get death threats…One night I had the kids in the  bath and realized someone was outside lighting matches, I told the kids to stay quiet and yelled out to the  next door neighbour.

She was also a great speaker to various groups including the unions, and in raising money to finance activism. During 1968 she attended a Paris Conference representing Women of Belligerent Nations, that is, Australia.

Jeans’ activism extended to the anti-apartheid protest against the Rugby Tour of the racist-based South African in Australia during July 1971. In Melbourne the police confronted the demonstrators with force and violence. Jean Mclean was bashed in the ribs and on the head by police after one identified Jean and shouted, ‘Get Jean McLean’. Other people around her were bashed as  well. During August 1971 an Anti-Apartheid Defence Fund was launched to help people pay fines, legal expenses and medical costs after the police violence during the Springbok Rugby tour.  Jean was involved.

She was involved with the successful Moratorium Marches against the Vietnam War. SOS worked closely with like-minded groups within the wider movement. The Victorian Moratorium Committee (VMC) was established.  In Melbourne there were three marches. The first and largest, reputed to have attracted 100,000 protesters in the CBD, was held on May. Two smaller marches followed in September 1970 and June 1971. Jean was joint deputy chair of the VMC and very prominent in leadership. The authorities were horrified of the proposed May march.  They did all they could to deter people from protesting. They claimed it would be violent and there would be blood in the streets. Prime Minister John Gorton and the Victorian Premier Henry Bolte accused Jim Cairns of inciting anarchy and forming an alliance with Communist Party. Jean and other SOS members found the ludicrous description by the Billy Snedden, Minister for Labor and National service, ‘political bikies pack-raping democracy as particularly offensive. Intimidation was not beyond the conservatives. The evening before the moratorium Jean was visited at her home by three-plain clothed police. They asked her to call off this ‘irresponsible ‘moratorium.  She refused. The attendance at the march was beyond Jeans’ wildest expectations. The march was non-violent and the police did not provoke violence. Jim Cairns led the march but as Jim himself observed in 1998 he was not the organiser but the committee itself which included Jean.  

As 1972 drew to a close there were signs that the Americans may withdraw from the war in Indochina and give the Vietnamese an opportunity for peace and reconciliation. The anti-war movement in Australia decided to demonstrate against American institutions in Australia and demand they withdraw from Vietnam. In Canberra a representative anti-war delegation from three cities went to the United States Embassy. It included Jean as vie president of the Victorian Vietnam Moratorium Campaign and as secretary of the Save Our Sons. With the election of the Whitlam Labor Government in December 1972 the NSA was repealed, court cases against draft resisters were halted  and those serving jail time for violating the NSA were released.  The remaining Australian troops in Vietnam were gradually withdrawn.

On Friday 2 February 1973, The  most enthusiastic, emotional and representative trade union reception for  many years  greeted the Vietnamese trade union delegation. Responding to the  speeches  of welcome, delegation leader Vu Dinh said they were glad to share the joy of victory with the Australian trade union members. If we  can  win a war  against the US imperialists we  should be  able to win the friendship of Australian workers  and people…ACTU president Bob Hawke congratulated the unions associated with the invitation to Australia. What has   been won Is a victory for sanity, for decency, and morality in our part of the  world. A similar event followed on Sunday 4 February 1973 where the Vietnamese delegates were welcome by Jean as a vice president of the Vietnam Moratorium Campaign and George Crawfod, secretary of the Plumber’s Union and State President of the Australian Labor Party.

There is no doubt that it the significance of Jean McLeans work with the anti-war and  ant-conscription movement during the Vietnam War period cannot be underestimated. Many other women were important to the movement’s success as well, but Jean stood out. The movement moved majority Australian opinion from favouring Australia’s participation in the war, and the acceptance of conscription, to a position where Australian opinion was at best evenly divided, if not a majority in favour of repeal and the end of the war.

Confirmatory Sources:

Collins, Carolyn. 2021. Save Our Sons: Women, Dissent and Conscription during the Vietnam War. Monash University Publishing, esp. chp. 10.

Canberra Times, 12 July 1969 p.9;9 April 1971, p.1; 10 April 1971, p.3; 19 April 1971, p.9.

Tribune, 17 April 1968, p.3; 14 April 1971, p.1; 21 April 1971., p.12; 7 July 1971, p.3; 25 August 1971, p.3; 15 February 1972, p.8; 24 October 1972, p.12; 31 October 1972, p.3; 6 February 1973, p.12; 18 February 1975, p.9; 15 April 1975, p.12.

Woroni, 22 February 1971, p.14.

Interview with Alexandra Pierce, 31 July 2018 http://www.livingpeacemuseum.org.au/s/alpm/page/sos-jean-mclean  accessed 26 January 2024.

Interview with Victorian Labor, https://viclabor.com.au/jean-mclean/  accessed 26 January 2024.

Interview for the documentary “Hell No We Wont Go’, https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C2122163 accessed 29 January 2024.

Alexandra Pierce, Women Against War Podcast, Women, Conscription, War, 2025, https://www.womenconscriptionwar.com/episodes/the-motivation-to-protest  accessed 26 February 2026.

Alexandra Pierce, Women Against War Podcast, Women, Conscription, War, 2025, https://www.womenconscriptionwar.com/transcripts/sos-save-our-sons  accessed 26 February 2026.

Alexandra Pierce, Women Against War Podcast, Women, Conscription, War, 2025 https://www.womenconscriptionwar.com/transcripts/helping-draft-resisters   accessed 26 February 2026.

Alexandra Pierce, Women Against War Podcast, Women, Conscription, War, 2025 https://www.womenconscriptionwar.com/transcripts/the-moratorium-of-1970  accessed 26 February 2026.

Alexandra Pierce, Women Against War Podcast, Women, Conscription, War, 2025 https://www.womenconscriptionwar.com/transcripts/different-ways-of-protesting  accessed 26 February 2026.

Alexandra Pierce, Women Against War Podcast, Women, Conscription, War, 2025 https://www.womenconscriptionwar.com/transcripts/the-importance-of-women  accessed 26 February 2026.